Blog For Arizona

Michael: The LD 28 Senate Slate

The deed is done. Representatives Bradley and Downing were elected on the first ballot to the slate from which the Board of Supervisors will replace retiring Senator Giffords. Nobody was surprised.

Then things got interesting. Apparently Supervisor Sharon Bronson decided to throw her considerable weight behind her own candidate for the slate, a woman named Nixon who has apparently considerable experience working on Bronson's staff, but whom I (and lots of others) had never met before tonight. She was an impressive candidate, to be sure.

Paula Aboud (and lots of others), whom nearly every Tucson Democrat knows, didn't cotton to the idea of Bronson basically foisting Giffords' replacement on us (shades of the old days when the PCs didn't vote on replacements...), so she decided earlier that afternoon that she was running, as there were no other women running. It took 5 rounds of balloting to eliminate all the other worthy candidates and bring the contest down to a head to head between Aboud and Nixon, and Aboud won handily.

Now the Board of Supes will select a new Senator among Downing, Bradley, and Aboud on January 3rd. If one of the Representatives is chosen, that will likely leave Democrats a seat short going into the January 9th session. For that reason and because of gender politics, Aboud might have a better than 1/3rd chance of being the selection. Add to that the problem of both Bradley and Downing terming out in 2006, with both possibly looking to hop to the Senate, and Aboud looks even more attractive to the Supes (they can avoid giving either Rep a leg up on the seat by selecting Aboud). Whether Aboud's last minute foiling of Bronson's designs will be a factor in the selection, well... we'll have to see.

posted by Michael Bryan @ 12/13/2005 09:09:00 PM